Saturday, 8 June 2013

What’s that up in the sky?

A prospective Worcester Parker has emailed me regarding local helicopter noise. She writes:

"I spent a few hours today (Saturday) walking around the area as I am thinking of buying a house to settle down and raise kids in WP. On my sunny walk everything seemed really nice. A few friendly people when I got lost, pretty green and leafy roads and then I saw 3 helicopters right overhead very loud! Now, it could well have been 1 helicopter circling as I found (via google) there is some sort of training school in the area. If I were to live right under their flight path, how often and to what time at night could I expect to hear them? Are they more common on the weekend and do they fly late enough to keep little ones up at their bedtimes?"

I understand we are more or less under a helicopter flight path from London but I wonder how much of London would not fit that description somewhat.

Once again I would like to turn this over to the lovely Worcester Parkers who never fail to provide interesting insights tempered with entertaining if not grumpy debate. What are your thoughts on our regular rotored roof-gazers?

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COMMENTS (Add Yours Now!):

borisranting
said...

never noticed one in the evening unless it was a police search chopper, and they can turn up anywhere. Nothing to worry about, gives the kids something to point at in the sky! Probably one of the noisiest ones I've heard went over today, that's as bad as it will get.

We don't notice them really, you get busy periods in the year like the Epsom Derby and you often see the army chinooks going past but like the previous comment the kids love them and wave to see if they get seen by them. It's really not a noise to worry about.

There is a helicopter flight path that goes through WP, and right over my house. Though it doesn't seem to operate at night. It only gets really noisy if there is a convoy of chinooks going over, but that is quite rare.

I fould the moise of police search helicopters in Central London far more annoying as they would sircle for a long time and late at night.

We live right underneath the flight path and have small kids. It's really never been a problem, I only notice a few, the chinooks are noisy but the kids love them. And as already mentioned the only helicopters at night are the odd police ones.

Thanks for the quick replies. It was today, probably about 3.30pm, could have been one guy circling a little low on a lesson. I was right near Cuddington Cemetery. Where I am at the moment there are no audible planes or helicopters (except in very rare cases a police search). It made me jump as otherwise it was pretty idyllic! No one else on the street seemed to notice which made me think it might be a regular thing.

Good to hear there are no reports of them flying too late, as that was the main concern with kids bedtimes being quite early evening.

I live practically on the high street and we regularly see/hear helicopters overhead. However only during the day, I can't recall noticing one even near dusk, let alone at night. My 2 year old loves them as do his friends, they all consider them to be very exciting. We moved here when he was 4 months old and they've never disturbed his sleep, day or night time. The (infrequent) drunk people shouting as they walk down the high street seem louder/more disruptive, to be honest.

Reference map here . The reason why we live in a helicopter lane is because we form part of the most continuous chain of parks, cemeteries and open areas between the South and Central London. Although there are flurries of choppers as a result, it's also worth noting that we rarely get jet airliners overhead. The rest is silence.

99% of the time it's fine, but occasionally during a bbq it can grate a bit. Although we are directly under the path, whereas my last house (500m away), I didn't even notice we were near a flight path!

They are more regular on a lovely sunny day, but it's not a particular nuisance I would say. I like seeing the chinooks and would agree that children would be fascinated by them. I think we probably get fewer police helicopters than other areas.

i like the sound.. i dont find it that regular and i like going to see the helicopter in the sky, an awesome sight! london has a few helicopter routes and i am led to believe that they do try and alternate using them so that there is a constant flight path over the same areas :)

I love to see and hear the helicopters. I grew up a few miles away and on a flight path and seeing the 747's fly over my house was enjoyable but worrying. I don't feel the helicopters are a nuisance. I have never heard the helicopters at night except the police one's and they can appear in any town!. I live with the railway line at the bottom of my garden and I love that too. Especially when the Tramper comes up the line at 2am.

I do I agree with Budgie though, that Ice Cream van parks right outside my house each day ringing it's bell. I wouldn't mind but I only brought a 99 about 2 years ago and have not been able to get rid of him since !!!

I'd say the regularity of choppers has increased over the past couple of years. Previously the'd been very infrequent but two weeks ago (Saturday) I was sitting outside and counted five in under an hour.

I don't think it's at nuisance levels yet but I think people might start complaining once the novelty wears off and (if) the frequency continues to increase.

Yes they were incredibly noisy and it was a bad time of night. But if as Dave says there is a training school at Redhill, we will occasionally get night training flights going over us. After all we want our forces to be properly trained.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest that rather than flying directly over KT4, a detour be enforced over a nearby landmark, for instance, passing over St. Helier or Epsom hospital instead.

Whilst this would undoubtedly adversely affect at least many hundreds of sick people, from a purely selfish and insular KT4 perspective, this would be of no consequence whatsoever.

After all, judging by the election results, we're apparently happy with the prospect of an incinerator belching pollution out and eastwards, across London, (on the basis that we're cunningly situated to the west of it) So it's someone else's health that'll suffer...they'll just have to move, won't they?

... Gosh! What happens if someone notes our carefree attitude to pollution and builds a similar incinerator to the west of us, so we're downwind of it?

Worcester Park, Surrey, is a town in the London Borough Of Sutton, in South West London. Covering the KT4 postcode area, its neighbouring towns are Cheam, North Cheam, Old Malden, Motspur Park, Malden Manor and New Malden. Visit the Worcester Park Blog for the latest local news in Worcester Park, along with opinion, gossip, local politics, restaurant reviews, pub reviews, news on accidents, traffic jams, high street shopping, incidents, landslides and everything else that goes on in and around Worcester Park!.